Bitten: Dead and Alive
by BatmanLoonaticsFan96
Summary: When Buffy's gang AND Angel's gang discover a prophecy describing a Vampire with a beating heart, Drusilla finds a new victim, whose world goes spiralling out of control when Castle and Beckett's lives are put in danger...by Vampires!
1. Prologue

Bitten: Dead and Alive

Prologue

_In England…_

Buffy Summers lay asleep in bed. She kept drifting back to the Vampire Drusilla, who was walking around somewhere in New York…

"Buffy! Wake up!"

Buffy woke up. "Will?" She rolled over to look at Willow, her best friend who was letting her and her sister stay in England for a couple weeks to get over her break-up with the Immortal when Dawn got out of Italian school. Actually, Willow had been in Brazil, but she and Xander (who himself had been in Africa) had been visiting Giles and Andrew for a couple weeks, too, because Giles needed their help with a prophecy he was working on translating that he said was "more important than training the Slayers." Buffy sat up in bed and looked at Willow. "What happened? What's wrong? Is Dawn OK?"

"Oh, everyone's fine. But Giles hit a breakthrough on the prophecy and he says we all need to hear this. So he has me, Xander, Dawn, and Andrew in his study and Kennedy and Faith on speaker phone and we can't get started without you."

Buffy got out of bed. "OK, OK. I'm up. I'm coming." She and Willow left and met their friends in Giles' study. "Alright, what's going down in the Underworld this time of year?"

Giles picked up his book. "Well, if I've translated this prophecy correctly—which is most likely, based on how helpful you all were with this—the prophecy says: 'The Gates to the Blood-lands shall be opened by the rise of the Vampire whose heart beats yet.'"

Faith scoffed as she walked down a dark street in a park, patrolling with a stake and her cell phone. "A Vamp with a beating heart? Not likely."

"That's what I thought, Faith," Giles told her through the phone, "Until I read further: 'The daughter of murder shall be bitten by the mother of thieves.' I'm supposing that by 'mother of thieves' it would mean someone weak or unclean or—"

"Someone like Drusilla was?" asked Buffy, remembering her dreams.

"Or someone like Drusilla is now," said Giles, "But it would also have to be taken literally and she never had any children, let alone criminal children. And 'daughter of murder' could be the offspring of any convicted or on-the-run felon across the globe, so there's almost absolutely no chance of finding that one."

"Does it say anything else?" asked Dawn.

"Uh…'dying on the full moon, born of the eclipse, the blood-soul shall wreak havoc upon the Blood-lands and bring such to the world.'"

"Full moon and eclipse…" Xander thought about this and checked the lunar calendar he kept in his wallet. "A lunar eclipse! And that's supposed to happen tonight in New York!"

"So we're too late already," Kennedy sighed from the building where she and Willow were training their Slayers.

"For the killing, yes," Giles continued, "But the apocalypse itself will not take place for another while. 'And their blood shall taint the timeline until they know their destiny.'"

"So they're not even gonna know who they are for quite some time," Andrew explained.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that no one else will," said Giles, "'And light and dark shall do battle…'"

_In LA…_

"'…but of good and evil, neither side shall win the race,'" Illyria quoted, "'The time will not come when she is revealed until a heart is felt breaking beneath her.' Such is the prophecy of the blood-soul."

"So some girl out there," Angel reasoned from his chair in the Hyperion hotel, "the daughter of a murderer, is gonna get bitten and die, but her heart is still gonna be beating and she's not going to realize who she is for a while. Meanwhile, good guys and bad guys will be continuously fighting to find out who she is and get to her so that she can open the 'Gates to the Blood-lands' and wreak havoc there?"

"Havoc of which kind is the question," Illyria said, her ice cold eyes staring at him, Spike, and the guy who had almost died, Charles Gunn.

"Great," said Gunn, holding an ice bag to his head, "As if the Wolfram & Hart bad boys weren't enough."

"Pull yourself together, Charlie boy," said Spike, "We may have an even bigger fight coming for us in no time."

"We have time," said Illyria, "The child will not even be bitten until tonight. When tonight even I am not sure of. But if there is one thing I know, it is that the child may already be in grave danger."

_In New York City…_

Alexis Castle raced through her apartment. She had to get away! He was coming for her! Suddenly, she tripped on a knocked-over chair and fell to the ground.

Her father, Richard Castle, came up to her and pointed a toy light saber at her. "I've got you now, my pretty."

Alexis stood up and held up her light saber. "I will not stand for this. You killed my father!"

"No, Alexis…I am your father."

Alexis stared at him and sliced her light saber at his wrist.

Castle bent his arm down so that is appeared his hand was gone. "AH! You took my hand!" He screamed for a few seconds…and then burst into laughter. "I'm sorry, but…you got me!"

Alexis smiled and laughed, too. "Yeah, I totally did."

"Oh, that was fun! I love it when your grandmother's out."

Alexis kept laughing.

Castle put down the light saber. "Well, I better go back upstairs and get ready to go help Beckett finish this case. We are going to another party, and I don't wanna be underdressed."

Alexis smiled as her father walked off to his room and closed the door tightly behind him. She put her light saber down on the table. _My dad. Where would I be without him?_ The doorbell rang.

"COULD YOU GET THAT FOR ME?" Castle cried through the tightly shut doors.

Alexis could just barely make out what he was saying. Something about the bathroom? OH! "I'VE GOT IT, DAD!" She raced over to the door and opened it. "Oh, hey, Carter."

One of her friends was at the door. "Hey, Al. Is it OK if I come in?"

"Sure, you're free to come in." She walked over to the couch and started to grab a CD. "If you want to, I can—"

The door shut.

Alexis whirled around and saw not Carter but an older woman (about late 20's or so) with brown hair standing there. "Who are you? Where's Carter?"

Drusilla walked closer. "Don't you recognize me, dear?"

Alexis stared at her in confusion. Was she trying to say that _she_ was Carter?

"Amazing what a little magic can do for you."

She was. She must be crazy or something.

"Tell me who you are right now or I'm calling the cops."

"Oh, they won't do anything to help you." Drusilla got close enough to knock her onto the couch, knocking the phone off the table as well and pinning her down. "I've got you right where I want you."

"Let me go!"

"Hush, dear. How would you feel about eternal life?"

Alexis' eyes widened. What?

"A death traded for a birth…one lifetime traded for an eternity…I can give it you…if you wish it…"

"Please…"

Drusilla shushed her and slowly closed her eyes. Suddenly, her face changed. It was wrinkled and distorted and…demon-like. She reopened her eyes to reveal that they were golden.

Alexis started whimpering in fear.

"Don't worry, pet." She leaned in… "It'll only hurt a little…" She brushed Alexis' ponytail out of the way and bit into her neck…

Alexis stopped crying and leaned her head back…

"ALEXIS!" Castle's voice came through the doors.

Drusilla stopped feeding and looked at the doors as the knobs started to jiggle and open…

Castle walked into the living room. "Have you seen my—" He then saw the living room. Drusilla was gone, but Alexis was lying there on the couch…quite possibly dead… "Alexis!" He ran over there and kneeled by the couch, taking her in his arms and examining her. The first thing he noticed was the 2 bite marks on her neck… "Oh no." He quickly took out his cell phone and quickly dialed. "Come on…pick up, pick up! Pick up!" Finally, someone answered the phone. "Beckett! It's Castle! We're gonna have to cancel the party, something's wrong with Alexis!"

_An hour later…_

Castle sat at the police office, waiting for something to happen.

Detective Kate Beckett walked up to him and sat down on a chair next to him.

"Any word yet?"

"Lainie is still checking on her. She said that she might be able to figure out what happened, but she's not sure."

"I'm just worried about Alexis."

"I'm positive everything will be fine."

"How can you say that when my only daughter might be—"

"Dad!"

Castle turned around, followed by Beckett, and saw Alexis coming out of Lainie's room with a bandage on her neck and racing for him. "Alexis!" He jumped up and met her halfway down the hall, hugging her tightly. "I was worried about you!"

"I wasn't so happy either."

Lainie walked up to the father and daughter. "I see you found out for yourself that your daughter isn't dead."

"Yeah!" Castle said, "How'd you fix her?"

"I didn't. She was fine herself. She was just unconscious. I was only able to figure out the cause of her spike. Someone attacked her."

"They did?"

"It must have been whoever was at the door," Alexis reasoned, "I really don't remember anything past opening the door, not even who was there."

"Whoever it was took a liking to her neck," said Lainie, "2 little holes covered in blood and leaving traces of only—get this—tooth enamel."

"What?"

"Maybe it was Vampires," Beckett said, walking up to them. They all looked at her. "That's payback for when you thought our killers were psychics, time-travelers, aliens—"

"I get it! And I didn't say the _killer_ was a psychic, I said that the _victim_ was a psychic."

"Regardless," Lainie intercepted, "I checked her over and the only other thing wrong was some semi-major blood loss."

"But there was no blood on the couch," said Castle, "So where'd all that blood go?"

"No idea, but I was able to give her a little extra blood to hold her up, and I cleaned the wound, and she came to almost immediately."

Castle sighed and turned to his daughter. "I am so glad you're safe." He squeezed her.

"Dad! Need to breathe!"

"Right, sorry." He let go. "So, do we need to investigate this?"

"She wasn't killed, Castle," Beckett said, gladly.

"_Attempted_ murder. And I wanna know who did it."

"Oh, uh, there's one more thing you may need to know," said Lainie. She looked at Alexis. "Alexis, honey, could you wait here in the hall?"

Alexis turned to her father, who nodded, and she nodded and sat down in the chair he'd been sitting in.

Lainie led Castle and Beckett in the room where they did most of their research. "Alright, you guys have to hear this: when you brought your daughter in…"

_Castle carried Alexis to Lainie and laid her carefully on the autopsy table._

"…I got suspicious that something was up. So I hooked her up to a heart monitor to make sure if she was still alive…"

_Lainie plugged in the heart monitor and it showed a flat line…_

"…and it said she wasn't. Then her heart started beating again…"

…_and suddenly, the line started beeping at a regular pace._

"…as if she'd only been unconscious the whole time. It didn't even take the typical 10 seconds of recovery. And it wasn't a semi-major blood loss, it was a _major _blood loss. I barely had enough blood of her type to reload her. Even if for a few seconds, your daughter was dead."

Castle and Beckett stared at her. "WHAT?"

Alexis, in the hall, heard that…and everything else… Why was her hearing so good? And that wasn't all. The next day, when her dad was making burgers, she was smelling not the meat but the blood coming from it…and she found herself listening to everyone's heartbeats…


	2. I: Mysticism

Chapter 1: Mysticism

_A year later…_

_It's been a year…_ Buffy thought, _Even if we find the girl or Drusilla, it might be too late. The bad guys could've gotten to her already._ She sighed as she sat down on the couch next to Dawn, who was flipping channels on the TV.

"You still thinking about that blood-soul girl?"

"Yeah. I just can't believe nothing's come up yet."

"Well, I would call Giles and Andrew to check up on them to cheer you up, but I don't wanna pay the international fees on my cell."

Buffy smiled.

Suddenly, Dawn stopped flipping and stopped smiling. "Buffy."

Buffy looked at the news coming in from the U.S.

_"…murders found to be similar to an attempted murder a year ago. The victim of last year's attack was none other than Alexis Castle…"_

"Oh, boy," said Buffy, "The pictures of the murders look like Vampire bites."

_"…and the criminal is expected to be this woman whom a witness identified."_

A sketch showed up on the screen of…Drusilla.

Buffy and Dawn gasped. "Uh oh." They looked at each other.

Dawn turned off the TV while Buffy grabbed the phone. "Who are you calling?"

"Andrew." Buffy finished dialing and held up the phone to her ear. "Andrew! Didn't you say you were reading some murder mystery novels by a guy named Castle?"

"Yeah," Andrew said, turning the pages on the Derrick Storm novel he was reading as they spoke.

"Does he live in New York? Does he have a kid named Alexis?"

"Wait a minute! Let me check the 'about the author' section." Andrew marked his place and turned to the back of the book. "Uh, it says 'Richard currently resides in an apartment in New York City with his mother, Martha Rogers, and his daughter, Alexis.'"

Buffy put the pieces together. "Andrew, we've gotta tell Willow, Xander, and Giles about this. I think I might have found our blood-soul girl."

_In LA…_

Angel was sitting in a coffee shop Fred had once gone to when Jasmine was out.

Gunn came up and sat down next to him. "What you up to?"

"Brooding."

"Blood-soul prophecy Illyria told us about?"

"Yup."

"I'm sure we'll find something."

"What we need is Wesley."

Gunn sighed. "That I can't help you with."

Spike came up and sat next to them. "Well, the blue ox is watching the hotel. She said she'd be researching for us, but I don't know if she'll find anything."

"Knowing her, she'll find more than enough," said Gunn.

Angel sighed. "Who knows if any of us will find anything."

About then, the 3 guys noticed the news coming in from New York (national broadcast that Buffy and Dawn had intercepted somehow). _"…police are still investigating the murders that appear to be connected to the attempted murder of Alexis Castle last year…"_

Angel saw the bite marks on the victims' necks. He tapped Gunn's arm. "Vampire."

"You think I didn't realize that?"

_"…criminal is expected to be this woman…"_

As soon as the guys saw the sketch of Drusilla, they knew something was up.

"We've found our blood-soul," said Angel, knowingly, "We've gotta grab Illyria from the hotel and get to New York."

_In England…_

Giles was on the phone with his and Andrew's top Slayer. "Rubella! You'll have to watch the other Slayers."

_In Brazil…_

Willow hung up her phone and walked up to Kennedy. "Kennedy, you'll have to watch the girls."

_In Africa…_

Xander was on the phone with his top Slayer. "Victoria! You'll have to watch the others."

_In Italy…_

Buffy was on the phone while Dawn packed their bags. "Faith, you're gonna have to watch my kids. Dawn and I are going to New York."

_In New York…_

Beckett looked at Castle. "Well, another case drawn to a close."

"You have no idea how much fun I'm having," Castle said, smiling.

Ryan, Esposito, and Montgomery walked in.

"Hey, Castle," said Esposito, "Guess who's on the news."

Castle smiled again. "Yours truly?"

"'Yours truly''s daughter."

"What? What's Alexis doing on the news?"

"Well, not so much on the news as in the news," Ryan said, turning on the TV.

_"…connected to the attempted murder of Alexis Castle last year…"_

"Wait, 'connected'?" asked Beckett, "We spent a week looking for some sort of evidence in the apartment and trying to jog Alexis' memory and these guys just make something up?"

"It's not made up," said Montgomery, "Same markings on the neck."

_"…the criminal is expected to be this woman whom a witness…"_

Castle saw the sketch and immediately started walk out.

"Castle?" asked Beckett, noticing him leaving. She then realized what he was up to. "Castle!" She raced after him. "Castle, she's _expected _to be the killer. We don't know it's her!"

"I'm not taking any chances."

"Yes, you are! Let's assume for the moment that it is her. She's killed at least a dozen people!"

Castle faced her. "And attempted to kill my only child!"

Beckett just stared at him. She couldn't beat that. "It's suicidal. And it was an _attempt_, not a success. Revenge is unnecessary for you."

"Do you not remember how it felt the night you found out that you'd lost your mother?"

Beckett kept staring at him.

"That's how I felt when I saw Alexis lying on that couch and some part of me knew that she was dead, even if just for a little while."

Beckett looked at her feet. She looked back up at him, sympathetically. "I understand what you're going through…that bloodthirsty need for justice…but you can't let it overcome you, especially when you're so lucky as to have gotten them back. My mother's not coming back, we're not the same in that case. I won't let you go. I won't let anything happen to you."

Castle stared her down…and finally walked past her back to the room they'd been in.

Beckett sighed, looking back at the floor but not moving otherwise.

_At Central Park…_

Alexis was walking through the park with her boyfriend, Ashley. "You're kidding!"

"Sometimes, I wish I were."

"You seriously can eat 2 hot dogs in one minute?"

"I'll prove it to you." He walked up to a hot dog vendor.

While he was ordering 3, Alexis started looking at him closer…she found herself listening to his heartbeat and looking at his neck… When no one was looking, she leaned in closer, her face slowly turning into one somewhat similar to Drusilla's attack face…

Ashley turned back to her, shocking her back to normal. "Get ready. Here it comes."

Alexis nodded, smiling and looked back at the hot dog guy. As he was fixing the meat, she looked at it, watching the blood drip off and into the fryer…

Ashley took their order, snapping Alexis out of it again. He handed her one, walked her over to a bench, and sat down with her. "OK, ready…" Alexis looked at her watch. "Go!" He started.

Alexis analyzed the time her watch showed so that she'd be ready to calculate his time when he was done. While she waited, she thought she heard something… She looked around and found herself hearing everyone's heartbeats. That gentle, steady rhythm like a drumbeat… After a while, she finally snapped herself out of it. It hadn't been this bad all year! What was wrong with her? She turned her attention back to Ashley to see that he was already done. She checked her watch. "Wow. 57 seconds."

"Told you." Ashley stood up.

Alexis smiled, following his example. They kept walking. But that pounding in her ears kept resounding… After just 15 steps, she stopped walking and covered her ears, trying to block out the noise. _Stop it. Stop it! STOP IT!_

Ashley noticed she was lagging behind and turned back to her. "Are you OK?"

His voice drowned out the noise. She looked at him, slowly putting her hands down. "I…I'm not feeling too well. Maybe I should go home."

"Well, I'll walk you back—"

"No! Uh…it's a long way and I don't want you to get sick or anything so…bye." She walked off. As soon as she was far enough away from him, she quickened her pace until she was racing down the roads at full speed…which was faster than usual. She stopped running at an intersection and turned the corner at semi-speed. Before she knew it, she was stuck in a crowd. She pushed her way through and eventually got pushed out into the streets by accident. A car started coming for her and she, without thinking, jumped up and threw a nearby trash can at it. Suddenly, she realized what she'd done. Before anyone could get a good glimpse of her, she raced off and down the streets, back to her apartment building. She jetted up the stairs and into her apartment. She slammed the door shut behind her, barricading it with her body in case anyone had seen her rush.

About then, her grandmother came up. "Why, you're home early."

"I…I wasn't feeling well."

Martha checked the clock. "Well, for a sick person, you sure showed up back here faster than humanly possible. I mean, from here to Central Park and back with this kind of traffic would've taken at least another 5 or 10 minutes."

While she droned on, Alexis realized she was listening to _her _heart. She quickly covered her ears again. She couldn't stand it.

"Would you like some chicken soup or something, dear?"

Alexis snapped out of it again. "Uh…I'm fine. I just need to get some rest. I'll be in my room." She raced back up the stairs and to her room.

Castle came back about then, just in time to see his daughter's strange behavior. He turned to his mother. "What's up with her?"

Martha sighed. "Well, she left on her date without saying a word to me, wouldn't answer my calls, apparently struck a fever or something, raced back here faster than humanly possible, and is now headed to her room to sleep it off without eating anything."

"That's weird. That's not like her."

"Well, it doesn't seem like she's been right in the head since she was attacked last year."

"Yeah, it's been exactly a year, hasn't it?"

Martha looked at him as he laid his jacket on the couch. "Like daughter, like father." Castle looked at her. "What's your problem?"

Castle sighed, dropping the rest of his stuff on the table. "Killer's still out there."

Alexis lay on her bed. She closed her eyes and in no time was able to hear Castle and Martha's conversation from the second floor through a closed door…

Martha: Whose killer?

Castle: Alexis'!

Martha: She didn't die that night!

Castle: Yes, she did!

Martha: Alright, for like…1 minute and 3 seconds. Big deal!

Castle: It is a big deal! To me! I had to live a whole minute without her. It felt like a lifetime. I'm not gonna let anything happen to her. And something did happen last night because of that woman who's been killing people in the exact same way for at least the past few months!

Martha: Surely, you're not thinking of going after this woman. It'd be like suicide!

Castle: Now you sound like Beckett.

Martha: Listen to me. Remember how you felt the night you lost Alexis? That's how I'm going to feel if something happens to you! Now let someone else, someone with more experience and a better chance, handle this!

Castle sighed.

Castle: I don't think I can.

Alexis stopped listening. So she really had died that night. And now her father was thinking of going after the killer. But wait… It was about then that memories came flooding back…of Drusilla the night she was killed. She looked at the wall in front of her, her breath quickening, as she slowly remembered the events of that night. She died because she'd been bitten? She slowly touched her neck where the bite marks were and began to put it all together: she'd died because of a bite in the neck by a woman with a demon face; she'd been craving to drink blood; she'd been hearing people's heartbeats; she could hear through several layers of wood and metal; she could lift a heavy metal trash can and throw it; she could run faster then ever before; and that moment when her face had changed in the park with Ashley… She jumped up from her bed and raced to her bathroom. She looked in the mirror. She still had a reflection. She closed her eyes and tried to remember that moment when she'd felt Ashley's blood flowing through him… She felt a change and opened her eyes to reveal that she was no longer in the mirror. She felt her face and felt the wrinkles and distortions that let her know that she had the same kind of "demon face" as the woman who bit her. This confirmed her suspicions. There was no use denying it. Even though her heart was still beating and her soul was still inside her…she was a Vampire!


	3. II: Arrival

Chapter 2: Arrival

Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Willow, Andrew, and Giles came off a flight at the New York City airport and started grabbing their bags from the luggage carousel.

"Wow, I can't believe I'm in New York!" Andrew said.

"We're here for a prophecy, Andrew," said Giles, "Please do not ruin it with your—"

Xander looked at them. "Geekdom? Nerdosity? Nerdiness?"

"All of the above," said Giles.

They grabbed their last bags and walked off.

"Alright," said Buffy, "Xander, start looking through the phone book at the payphone for the names 'Richard Castle' and 'Martha Rogers' and we'll be trying to hail a cab."

Xander nodded and handed Andrew his bags before going over to the payphone and looking through the white pages. "C…C…C…C!" He started flipping.

While the others were trying to get to the cabs, a convertible with tinted windows drove up.

"Well, we're here," said Angel, pulling over on the side of the road to take a break.

"Took us long enough," said Spike.

"Well, every time the sun started coming up," said Gunn, "We had to put the top up and move you 2 to the back seat to hide under the blankets while me and Little Blue Riding Hood started driving. Every switch took a half hour!"

"I told you we should've just kept the top up and you and me _stay_ under the blanket in the back seat, but no!" Spike complained.

"Look, we're here to find Alexis Castle and confirm that she's our blood-soul," Angel said, "If not, we're stuck."

"The prophecy said 'daughter of murder'," said Illyria, "None of you said that the 'newsman' told you either of her parents were murderers."

"It said her dad was mystery writer," said Angel, "He kills people in his books. Right now, one of us needs to be looking at the phone book at the payphone for the name 'Castle'."

"I'll do it." Gunn got up and walked out to go to the payphone and check the phone book. As he walked in, he bumped into Dawn. "Oh! Sorry."

"It's OK." Dawn kept walking. "Taxi!"

While Gunn was headed to the phones, Xander was still looking through the names in the phone book. "Caller…Campbell…Capybara? Castle! Richard Castle. Got it!" He memorized the address and turned around to walk off.

Gunn came up. "Are you done?"

"Oh, sure. Go ahead." Xander walked off.

Gunn stared after him. "Guy with one eye." He scoffed. "We're definitely in New York City. Oh, look, it's already on the right page!"

Xander met the others outside and loaded into a taxi with them and they started off.

Gunn then came out and raced back into the car. "Found him."

"Then we better get going." Angel drove off.

_At the precinct…_

Lainie was showing Castle and Beckett the latest dead body. "Same marks on the neck."

"Most likely the same killer," said Castle.

"That's what I thought," said Lainie, "But the cause of death wasn't the 'bites'."

Beckett looked at her. "Then what was?"

"See how twisted the head is?"

"Someone snapped their neck and then left the marks just to warn us that it was the same killer?"

"Again, exactly what I thought. Only problem is, our killer favors the right side of the neck and some of these victims were hit on the left."

"So different killers, same style?"

"Bingo. But there is one other detail that proves our theory difficult: none of our victims have anything in common. If one has something in common with another, he has nothing on anyone else."

Castle stared at the bite marks on the left side of the neck on the victim's body. "How many more were there?"

"Plenty."

Castle sighed. "Show me."

_Meanwhile…_

Alexis was walking down the street in the moonlight. Only a few people passed her, so no one noticed that she was crying. Suddenly, she passed by an alley and someone grabbed her and pulled her into the alleyway.

The Vampire looked at her. "Ooh, a pretty one." Alexis stared at him in fright. "Listen to that heartbeat."

Alexis punched him in the face.

The 3 other Vamps who were with him smiled.

The Vamp looked her at her. "You shouldn't have done that." He grabbed her again.

Buffy and her friends' cab pulled up and they all piled out and got ready to go into the apartment building.

Angel and his friends pulled up in the convertible from down the street so they could park and got out, ready to search the building.

Just when both gangs were about to go into the building, they barely heard a girl screaming down the street. They all raced down the street and into the alley.

The Vampire leaned in to bite a whimpering Alexis…

"Hey!"

The Vampire turned.

Buffy kicked him in the face.

Everyone else joined the fight against the 4 Vamps.

Alexis, scared, simply pinned herself to the brick wall, massaging her neck where the Vampire had almost bitten her.

Finally, Buffy dusted the final Vamp and turned to… "Angel?"

"Buffy?" Angel asked.

"Buffy?" Spike asked.

Buffy noticed him. "Spike?"

"Spike?" Dawn asked.

"Spike?" Willow asked.

"Awkward!" Andrew said.

"Who are you people?" asked Alexis.

"Hold on a second," Spike said, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well, there was this whole prophecy thing and—" Buffy started.

"Whoa, you're here about the blood-soul prophecy?" asked Gunn, "We're here about the blood-soul prophecy!"

"Well, what's Spike doing out?" asked Xander, "I mean, he's supposed to be dusted! He blew up closing the Hell-Mouth!"

"And came back to life unfortunately," said Spike.

"I hate our lives," said Dawn.

"Hey, if it's makes you feel any better," Alexis told her, "mine's not too perfect either."

"Yeah, we could tell that as those guys attacked you," said Willow.

"Speaking of which, we did see them turn to dust, right?" asked Alexis.

"Of course she saw that," said Xander.

"Trying to save her life, Xander," said Buffy.

"Yeah, look how well that went."

"And I ask again: who are you people?" Alexis asked.

"Long story," said Buffy.

"Trust me, I have time."

"OK, well, I'm Buffy Summers. I'm…a Vampire Slayer."

Alexis stared at her. "You know, before today, I would've called you a liar. But my life's been so freaky lately—you know what? Just keep going!"

"Right, this is my little sister, Dawn; my best friend, Willow Rosenberg; my other best friend, Alexander Harris, who everyone just calls Xander; my Watcher, Rupert Giles; his trainee, Andrew Wells; my Vampire ex-boyfriend, Angel; my other Vampire ex-boyfriend, Spike; and their friends…"

"Charles Gunn and Illyria," said Angel.

"Right."

"So a Vampire Slayer dated 2 Vampires, one of which died and came back to life?" asked Alexis.

"Actually, both of which who died and came back to life," said Willow, "It's a long story, OK?"

"Should we not be searching for the girl from the prophecies?" asked Illyria.

"Right," said Buffy, putting away her stake. She turned to Alexis. "Hey, do you know where we can find Alexis Castle?"

Alexis' eyes widened. "W-What do you want with Alexis Castle?"

"Well, see, this prophecy we translated said there was a Vampire whose heart was beating and that the forces of good and evil would be colliding over her. And we saw a…thing on the news that said a girl named Alexis Castle had been attacked by Vampire—well, they didn't say that exactly, but you get the idea. And the prophecy had said 'daughter of murder' and 'mother of thieves' and Alexis' dad is a murder mystery writer and her attacker…well, actually we don't know what Drusilla has to do with that part, but we're pretty certain by now that it may have something to do with the other people she sired. But the point is, we need to find Alexis Castle now, because we think she may be the one we're looking for."

Angel nodded, confirming that he had the same story.

Alexis sighed. "Well…you've found her."


	4. III: Discovery

Chapter 3: Discovery

Lainie opened the morgue cabinets to reveal several victims of attacks by Vampires. "Same exact markings on the necks every time. Every few is different. Different sides of the neck, different causes of death, different widths between holes, different somehow every other time."

"Well, Castle," said Beckett, "aren't you gonna make some crack about Vampires or something?" No response. She stopped smiling. "Castle?" She turned around. He wasn't there. "Castle!" Her phone rang. She answered it. "Beckett."

Castle was outside. "I've gotta go. It's getting late."

Beckett sighed. "Well, you have to meet us back here in 20 minutes so that we can finish this case."

"Fine. See you there." He got into his car and drove off to go home.

_At the apartment…_

Alexis peeked through the door into the apartment. Nobody there. She opened the door. "OK, guys. Coast is clear. Go!" They all loaded in, quickly but quietly. She closed the door and started to lead them to the stairs. "We have to get you guys back to my room before—"

"Alexis?" Martha walked in.

Alexis groaned. "I thought you had a show tonight."

"I did. An hour ago. Who are you little friends?"

Alexis sighed. "Well…excellent question. And you know, I would answer it, but seeing as Dad isn't here—"

Castle walked in. "I'm home."

"Of course you are."

Martha put a hand on her hip. "Alexis, what is going on?"

_One explanation later…_

Castle and Martha were sitting next to each other on the couch, in silent shock from the story they'd just received.

Alexis sat in a chair alone, sighing.

The rest of them were strewn across the room, not saying anything to interrupt the family moment.

Castle finally spoke up. "Are you sure?"

Alexis sighed and stood up. "I can prove it to you if you don't believe me."

"Oh, seriously, Alexis," said Martha, "you don't expect us to believe…" Alexis looked down. "…that you or these kids could possibly be—" Alexis looked at them with her game face on. Martha jumped.

"Whoa!" Castle said.

Alexis turned back to normal.

"OK, that…" Castle couldn't think of anything to say. "…was…"

"Honestly, dear, don't startle me like that!" Martha snapped, "You could've given me a heart attack."

Castle sighed. "Great. My daughter's a Vampire."

"Not completely, she's still technically alive," said Willow.

"Just be thankful she's not evil," said Xander.

Before Castle could say something in return, his phone beeped. He pulled up a text. "Uh oh. It's from Beckett. I was supposed to go back to the precinct to meet her about this case 5 minutes ago! Oh, she's gonna freak."

_At the precinct…_

Beckett was burst out laughing. "Vampires?" She kept laughing her head off.

"She's not so much freaking," said Gunn.

"I'm serious!" said Castle, "Alexis is at least partially a Vampire, because our killer's a Vampire! And these guys are apparently supposed to fight the Vamps and—"

"Stop it, Castle, you're killing us!" Ryan said, laughing almost as hard as Beckett was, along with Esposito and Montgomery.

Alexis stepped forward. "He's telling the truth! I can prove it!"

Before she could do anything, a beeping noise from the computer interrupted the cops' laughter.

Beckett checked it. "We've got a hit on our killers. We better go after them before they get a chance to run." She got up and started to walk out with Ryan, Esposito, and Montgomery.

Castle sighed and decided to follow them.

Alexis started to lead the others off with them—

Castle came back and blocked her. "You stay here." He left again.

Alexis stared after him, openmouthed.

Castle came back again. "Now you know how I feel every time Beckett tells me to wait in the car." He left _again_.

Alexis groaned.

_At an abandoned apartment building…_

The cops pulled over outside the old apartment complex in an abandoned area of town, where they suspected their killers to be.

Montgomery stopped their back-up guys. "Leave this one to me, Castle, Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito. If we need back-up, we'll signal you guys."

"What's the signal?" asked Castle.

Beckett cocked her gun. "A gunshot." She walked in.

Castle, Ryan, Esposito, and Montgomery followed.

The 5 walked into the building. Beckett led them down a hall and suddenly stopped them, gesturing to them to be quiet. They could hear their killers talking:

"I'm telling you! I saw them fighting our guys! They were in an alley with—"

"Save it! If they were here, we would have heard earlier!"

"They _just_ came into town!"

"It doesn't matter! You could've grabbed the girl and run while they were fighting and you didn't! Now while I'm in charge, I will not have such incompetents working for me as you."

"What—what are you doing? No! No! NO!"

The 5 of them saw a fire light up and disappear.

Beckett held up her gun and nodded to them to let them know it was time to go in. "Ready…" Before they could go in, 5 more guys came up and pulled them in.

The head bad guy looked at them and smirked.

Castle looked at Beckett. "Again, now you know how I feel!"

While the minions were taking their guns, more of them came in…dragging in Buffy and co. and Angel and co. and Alexis.

"Look who we found out back, boss," said one of the minions.

Beckett glared at them. "We told you guys to wait at the precinct!"

"We followed you," Dawn confessed.

The main guy smirked. "So the NYPD actually thought they could stop us?"

"It was actually going pretty well up to this little snag," said Spike.

"Shut up, Spike!" Angel scolded.

"Wait a minute, don't I know you from somewhere?" asked the guy.

"Doubtful," said Angel.

"Oh, now I remember! You killed my girlfriend."

Angel took a closer look at him. "Oh, yeah, I remember you."

"Well, if they're your friends, what say I kill them?" He looked at Castle. "And start with him?"

Alexis could feel the anger swelling inside her until it boiled her blood and her heartbeat was quickened so ferociously that pretty much the whole room could hear it (that's hyperbole, I feel compelled to point out; certainly, it was just Spike and Angel and their friends). Alexis stomped on the foot of the guy who was holding her, making him let go of her. She grabbed him and threw him into the main guy, knocking them both down. She jumped on the guy before he could get up and they started fighting.

The others tried to get out to help her, but the other guys held them too tight.

Alexis knocked the guy back again.

The guy saw Beckett's gun lying on the floor and grabbed it.

Alexis started to get up…

The guys outside heard the gunshot and raced to the door, but it was locked.

Alexis gasped. She slowly looked down and saw a bullet wound in her abdomen. She collapsed.

"ALEXIS!" Castle cried.

The guy broke the gun in half and tossed it aside. "That's what you get for messing with Snake." He got back up. "Now…"

Alexis got up in her game face and pulled his leg to knock him down. She grabbed Ryan's gun and shot him in the side.

Snake glared at her, also in his game face. Yup. Definitely a Vampire.

Alexis jumped up.

So did Snake.

Alexis kicked him in the stomach.

Snake kicked her in the side.

She flipped him, knocking him into the wall.

He turned back around and threw a punch at her.

She grabbed his fist before he could make contact and threw him through the window.

Snake landed in a pile of broken glass outside.

The other cops started after him.

Snake jumped up, in human form, and raced off before they could catch him.

The Vamp that had been holding Alexis got up and started after her.

Alexis saw him, ripped off part of the window side, and pierced him in the heart with her makeshift stake, dusting him. She looked at the others, still in Vamp form.

The other Vampires immediately raced out, letting the gang go.

Alexis dropped her stake and turned back to human form.

"Told you she was a Vampire," Castle told his cop friends.


	5. IV: Decisions

Chapter 4: Decisions

"So let me get this straight," Ryan said back at the precinct, "Alexis is a Vampire?"

Everyone else nodded.

"How did this happen?"

"Well…" Alexis started thinking. "Hold on, it's coming back to me…"

_Drusilla bit her…_

"OK, that night when Dad brought me in here because I'd been attacked…uh…he'd been in his room with the door shut, so he couldn't possibly have heard anything. That's about when the doorbell rang—of course, he heard that since it goes through the whole apartment—I answered it and one of my friends was there and she asked me if I could come in and I let her in and it turned out to be a Vampire."

"Yeah, if one of your friends _asks_ if they can come in, you might not wanna invite them explicitly," Willow instructed.

"Right. She bit me, Dad came back, she left, and I blacked out."

"Wait a minute!" Buffy said, "She bit you and left? You're sure you didn't drink any of her blood?"

"Ew! Why would I do that?"

"'Cause that's the only way you could possibly be a Vampire!"

Alexis stared at her. "What?"

"Yeah, they have to drink your blood, then you have to drink some of their blood, blah, blah, blah, you're dead and you rise, you're a Vampire for all eternity until you get slain and you turn to dust. That's how it happens!"

"Well, think about it, Buffy," said Dawn, "Her heart's still beating and she can go out in sunlight so she's not completely a Vampire. She probably didn't have to drink Drusilla's blood."

"Yes, she did," said Giles, "Otherwise, the transformation wouldn't have started at all, let alone partially _or_ completely."

"So what happened to me?" asked Alexis.

"Moving on…" said Beckett, "I'd like to know where our killer went."

"He's a Vampire," said Buffy, "He's probably already hopped on board a boat to Europe and out of here by now."

"Now in all your years of experience does that really sound like normal Vamp behavior?" asked Xander.

"He just realized we have a Vampire with a soul on our side that's working with the police. Of course he left without one last feeding!"

"Not the way I would do it," Angel scoffed, "The way I'd see it, there's just more blood in the picture."

"Whoa, he's gonna bite us?" asked Ryan.

"And he's not our biggest concern," Angel continued, ignoring Ryan's comment, "What about Drusilla? She's still out there."

"For all we know, she's working with, for, or _above_ this Snake guy," said Gunn.

"Dru works alone," said Spike, "Unless, of course, I'm with her but those days are behind me."

"Whoa, you 2 are Vamps, too?" asked Ryan. Angel and Spike nodded. "Alright, mind giving us the full explanation?"

"The _full_ explanation would take hours," said Buffy.

"What about the _short_ full explanation?" asked Xander.

"We have a '_short_ full explanation'?"

Xander thought about that. "Oh, yeah, I guess we don't."

"Well, yeah, I mean, we'd have to sum up about 250 years with _him_," Dawn said, pointing at Angel.

"And another 130 with _him_," said Willow, pointing at Spike.

"And millennia with _her_," said Gunn, pointing at Illyria.

"And how I died twice," said Buffy.

"And how I became a Witch," said Willow.

"And how I lost an eye," said Xander.

"And how I came about without being born," said Dawn.

"And how Giles here got sacked and ended up training me," said Andrew.

"And how I became a Vampire without going through the whole ritual?" Alexis jumped in.

"Right, sorry," said Giles, "Let's think this through."

"Wait, I'm confused," said Beckett.

"Aren't we all," Lainie said.

"Wait," said Castle, "They've given me enough to figure it out. Illyria here is a being that was alive at the beginning of time and who was brought back to life recently. Angel and Spike here obviously were killer Vampires for centuries until they got their mortal souls bestowed upon them along with the guilt of their crimes and are now working with the Slayer—Buffy—to 'help the helpless' so to speak. The only problem is, both men had fallen madly in love with her and had to give her up because of horrible death and possibly some sexual violence. It probably would never have worked out, a Slayer dating a Vampire even with a soul. And to top it all off, her best friend is a Witch, her other best friend lost an eye in a battle against an evil demon, her Watcher was fired and ended up training a little nerd they never were that fond of since he was briefly an evil demon-caller, and her little sister was never truly supposed to exist but did come about and got caught in the middle of a war with one of the worst bad guys they ever faced."

"Wow, that was dead-on," said Buffy.

"Kind of creepy," said Xander.

"Obviously, you don't know my dad," said Alexis.

"Yeah, creepy is kind of his thing," said Beckett.

"Alright," said Spike, looking at Angel, "What do you say you tell us how you know this guy?"

"Well, he and his girlfriend were Vampires and I slew his girlfriend about 5 years ago."

"Oh. That simple."

"What about this Drusilla?" asked Montgomery.

"Well," said Angel, "that's actually a long story, too—"

"Give me some names, I'll whip something up," Castle said.

"Let me explain this time. I'll give you the short version. See, around 1860 or so, I was still a killer. And Drusilla was my biggest turning of my whole Vamp life."

"Let me guess," said Castle, "You drove her insane first."

"Killed her family…"

"Didn't turn them."

"Drove her insane…"

"Because she was already connected to the magic world."

"Played with her mind…"

"Oh, she was a psychic."

"Chased her into a convent…"

"Because she thought her visions were 'an affront to the Lord' or something like that."

"And finally turned her."

"On the night she took her holy orders."

"OK, now you're scaring me."

"Good. That means I'm doing my job right." He looked at Spike. "And tell me she didn't fall in love with you and turn you."

Spike looked at the others. "This guy's good."

"So how do we stop Drusilla?" asked Beckett.

"Uh, we don't," said Xander, "When we say she's crazy insane, we don't mean in like a 'I am the emperor, I want dumplings, watch me do the polka' kind of way, we mean like in a 'I'm dead and torture dolls; I'm gonna kill you, too; watch me do the polka' kind of way."

"Why do both of them have the polka?" asked Dawn.

"That's his Xander spin on things," said Willow.

"Didn't you face her already?" asked Alexis.

"Yeah, but we never could catch her," said Buffy, "The closest we ever got was when Spike had her chained to the ceiling and she still got away."

"I'm just wondering what her mixed-up noggin is cooking up now," said Spike.

_Across town…_

Drusilla paced around an empty cavern.

Snake came up to her. "Drusilla!"

"How did the raid go, Snake?" Drusilla asked, not looking at him.

"Not as good as I'd hope. We found your old boyfriend."

"Spike? His filthy soul reeks…I can't stand the feeling it gives me…where is he?"

"With the Slayer again."

"Always with the Slayer…"

"And the blood-soul."

Drusilla whirled around, groaning. "Not with the girl! My Spike…Daddy…gone to her? I tried to kill her…"

"She'll die. What I don't get…she was in Vamp mode. You said she didn't feed back."

"Didn't need to. She breaks through. Her heart was ready. Shaken… It spoke to me. That's how I found her. When I fed…I felt her crawl into me. Her essence took me. No tongue touched my blood."

"You're saying she was already dead?"

"Close enough to kill without killing. Didn't need to make her feed…she was dying. I revived her. She should be mine now."

"You knew? You wanted her to join us?"

"Got you instead. Now she's pivoting…" She started swaying back and forth, her eyes closed. "…between good and bad. Her heart battles her for light and darkness…she longs for the taste of that blood but she can never have it…until I have her." She stopped moving, Vamped, and opened her eyes. "I must have her."


	6. V: Stumbling

Chapter 5: Stumbling

_A life and death struggle…_

Alexis woke up. Who'd said that? She got up in her bed. She'd been asleep. Maybe it was the drifting playing tricks with her mind. She looked at the clock. 6:28. She groaned a little, but still got up. She walked over to the window. She opened the curtains. As soon as the sunlight hit her, she stumbled back. She closed the curtains hastily. She then realized what had happened. The sunlight was hurting her. She raced to the bathroom and looked in the mirror…she wasn't in it. She felt her face. She sighed. There was the problem. She'd been sleeping in Vamp mode. She turned back to normal and appeared in the mirror. She'd have to get used to this. She walked downstairs. She had to eat something. She opened the fridge and saw a packet of…something. She picked it up and noticed a note on it. She read it:

_You'll lose control if you don't eat this at least once a day. Trust me. Be careful. ~Angel_

Alexis half-smiled. She opened the packet and started drinking what was in it. She instantly winced and stopped. It tasted like blood. Oh, wait a minute. She sighed. That's why she'd been sleeping in Vamp mode and the sunlight had hurt her: she'd been deprived of blood through her transformations and now the hunger was fighting back. There was only one way to keep herself intact now. She grimaced, but forced herself to drink the pigs' blood. Finally, she dropped the packet in the trash.

_A few hours later…_

Giles was researching about the blood-soul prophecy. Then he noticed one phrase that caught him: "dead from not dying." He instantly dove into it.

_Another few hours later…_

Giles raced up to the others at the precinct. "I got it."

Buffy looked at him. "What do you got?"

"I'll show you."

The gang gathered in the autopsy room (perfect place to talk about Vampires).

"First things first," said Giles, "Lainie, did you happen to take Alexis' blood the night she was attacked?"

Lainie looked at him. "Yeah, but nothing showed up in the tests."

"Test it again."

Lainie kept looking at him, now with wider eyes.

"Then compare it with now. Because I think the answer to our questions about her transformation may be buried in her blood sample."

"Alright, how could that be possible?"

"Uh, Lainie, I hate to question your medical abilities but we may need to trust him on this," Alexis said.

Lainie sighed. "Alright." She went to do the tests.

The others were practically crowded around her while she did that.

She finally just plain stopped. "Do you mind?"

They all backed away.

She went back to what she was doing. Then she noticed something. "That's odd."

Giles walked up to her. "What?"

"There's traces of blood that isn't hers just plain mixed in here. I guess when I ran the tests that night I assumed it was the way her heart was malfunctioning but now that I'm doing comparisons, I can see that the extra blood is practically dead."

"Because it's coming from a non-beating heart."

"Drusilla's blood _did_ mix with Alexis'?" Beckett asked.

"Just not in the normal way."

Lainie kept going. "Well, that changes the tests' outcome."

"Which is exactly why you didn't find a cause of death other than the bites."

Angel looked at him. "Are you saying she was already dying?"

Giles had everyone's attention then. "Actually, yes. See, the prophecy mentioned something about 'being dead without dying.' I dove into that and realized that the Vampire bites alone wouldn't delay in death if they were going to cause it unless something was already wrong with the victim. Let alone only do it for a few seconds."

"Hold on," said Willow, "Let me see if I get what you're saying here: Alexis was basically dead when Drusilla attacked her?"

Lainie finished the tests. "Yes." Everyone looked at her. "I couldn't make a diagnosis before but Alexis was coming down with a rare disease that couldn't be traced before it was too late unless you were looking for it specifically. Since Drusilla's blood was combining with hers that night, I couldn't see it. But now that I'm comparing it with her healthy blood now, and adjusting for the fact that Drusilla's already faded or soaked into her heart or something and resulted in her changes, I can see that she had it. She was about 3 days away from the symptoms and another untreatable 2 days in which her condition could've gotten worse before it finally resulted in early death."

"Wow…" Alexis tried to process this. "How could I have possibly come down with it?"

"No telling. In all the years they've been testing the disease, it didn't exactly come up with a cause."

"So how did Drusilla's Vampire blood end up inside Alexis' dying human blood?" asked Beckett.

"Well, it could be that Drusilla had been injured in the hunt earlier that night and didn't notice it; then in her rush to get out of Castle's apartment, her wound somehow ended up pouring blood in Alexis' infecting bite wounds."

Buffy then got it. "And mixed with hers in a way that compounded with her disease and jumped her heart back and forth until it died, letting the Vampiric infection set in. But it didn't completely take over, let alone take her soul, before her heart started beating again."

"Thus resulting in her changes into the blood-soul," said Angel.

"Wait," Alexis said, "wouldn't 'blood-soul' basically mean 'soul stained with the blood of others'? Wouldn't that more apply to you and Spike?"

"Well, yeah, but, uh…newsflash, kid, your dad gets paid to kill people."

Castle had everyone's attention then. "What—no, I don't!"

"In your books."

"Oh… Sorry."

Lainie then remembered something. "There was another attack last night, too." She went over to the autopsy table and pulled back the sheet enough to reveal the bite wounds in the neck. "Another Vampire." She held up a note. "He had this in his hand."

Spike took it.

_"Spike, I know you're there. Why aren't you here? With me? Because of it. That filthy disease you carry. Tell Daddy to hold onto the girl. She's mine. And I'm not the only one. Her heart still beats. But not for long."_

"Uh oh."

"What?" asked Beckett, "That didn't make any sense."

"That's kind of how Drusilla works. Let me translate: She knows we're here with Buffy and Angel but she wants me there with her even though she obviously knows I won't be the same since I have a soul now."

"I.e., 'that filthy disease you carry,'" said Castle.

"Exactly. And it says to 'tell Daddy to hold onto the girl.'"

"In other words, tell me to guard Alexis," said Angel.

"'She's mine. And I'm not the only one.' …She wants Alexis. She wants to take her soul, complete the transformation so the prophecy won't come true. And apparently, Drusilla isn't the only one trying to do so."

"'Her heart still beats. But not for long,'" Willow added.

"She wants to kill me?" Alexis cried.

"…She kind of already did," said Dawn.

"Point taken."

_With Drusilla…_

Drusilla walked around in the sewer. "Dark and dank… It reeks of death…"

Snake walked up behind her. "It's the New York sewer. All it smells of is old alligator."

Drusilla shushed him. "I can hear them singing to me… The dead bodies…they call me…"

"We're probably getting closer to the ME's office at the police precinct. I wouldn't be surprised if it was loaded with…" He trailed off. "I'm feeling them. Angelus and William the Bloody—"

"It's not Daddy…and not my Spike… They have gone all away…gone to her…gone to them… Well, I'm about to make a chorus of singing souls as the dead rise in my hands…"

"A whole army of Vamps? You think you can pull it off?"

Drusilla glared at him. "I think I've tried harder." She giggled. She walked up to a ladder and looked up. "No going through there. Get all burnt up."

"Wouldn't make it difference if you _wanna_ smell like bacon."

Drusilla suddenly groaned.

Snake grabbed her hand to keep her from collapsing. "What is it?"

"They know! The girl…her past…they know!"

Snake processed this. "The Slayer and her buddies know about the girl coming down with that disease before you killed her."

"I didn't…I didn't even know until I tasted her… How did they find out?"

"They've got a lot of technology these days that can help you test the blood sample for a disease without having to eat the patient. It's called a microscope."

Drusilla growled. "She's mine. I'll have her. If I can't have Daddy and my Spike…can't even have grand-mum…I'll take her. She'll be a ruthless beast. It runs in the family."

"No kidding."

"All I have to do is take that filthy soul…stop that beating heart, rip it out first so that they can't stake it…and make her mine."

"You're gonna do what? Dru, you can't rip someone's heart out without killing them. Doing that would prohibit the whole Vamp thing."

"Not for her."

"What?"

"She's different… She doesn't need it… It'll keep beating…" She began to caress the wall. "Thump, thump…thump, thump…I can hear it from here…so strange a sound…so different… It's addictive. That heart doesn't even need to be in her body to work."

"Sounds like someone's watched a little too many of the last couple _Pirates of the Caribbean_ movies."

"She'll be mine. I take her…drink again…rip that beating heart out…" She yanked off part of the bolted-down metal wall. "…and make her drink this time. That dying will go away. That pain will stop. And she'll be mine."

"Are you sure turning her now, if her heart's gonna keep going, is still gonna take her soul?"

Drusilla smiled. "I'm sure. I just need to take her…and I'll need you for that…"


	7. VI: Plots

Yeah, this one's kind of filler-y. Oh, well. It's working as a transition to the next chapter, anyway.

Chapter 6: Plots

Beckett laid out a map of New York. "OK. We just have to find Drusilla and maybe we can flush her out into the open and get her out of the way."

"Not gonna happen," said Spike, "She's a tough one."

"First things first, a plan," said Buffy, "Well, actually, the first thing is to actually find out where she is. Let's just establish the central area of where she's been hunting lately and look for the center and go around from there, hope we actually get lucky."

"Wow, Buffy," said Giles, "That's _actually_ a good plan."

"Factually?"

Giles smiled.

Buffy smiled back.

"Well…" said Ryan, going over the map, "She's been spotted recently…" He took out a marker and started marking where the murders had taken place lately. "…here…here…here…and here. So maybe we should check in the exact center." He drew lines between the spots to make a square and then drew an intersecting x in the center, finally reaching the center and circling it. "There."

"That's in the middle of the street," said Castle.

"Then we check the sewers," Angel suggested, "I mean, she's a Vampire, she can't go out in daylight—obviously, she'd hide in a dark building or underground during the daytime."

Castle looked at him and nodded. "Well, obviously."

While the conversation continued, Dawn turned enough to see the Alexis was in the next room, looking at her feet as she sat on a desk. Dawn slipped away from the group and into the next room, closing the door behind her so no one would hear the following conversation. "Hey." Alexis looked at her. "Something wrong?"

Alexis sighed. "Everything's changing too fast. I thought my life was normal and now this had to just suddenly happen."

Dawn nodded. "I know how you feel." She down next to her. "I had the same thing going on with me a few years back. Turns out, my whole life had been a lie. That summer, I'd been created and placed in my family with forged memories just so some big bad guy at the time couldn't find me and use my power to destroy the world. Of course, that power's gone now, but…not before it killed my sister. Good thing Willow was able to bring Buffy back but everything after that just went downhill. Sometimes I feel like our group pretty much fell apart just because I exist."

Alexis looked at her. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's OK. I'm over it now. Everything's OK. Our gang's all back together. Right now, the situation is you. And I can tell you've got bigger problems at the moment."

(Jennette McCurdy's "Homeless Heart" plays in background)

Alexis just looked at her feet. "Yeah. Guess I do." She pressed her hand against her chest, feeling her own heartbeat. The heartbeat that shouldn't be going. At the moment, her very existence felt wrong.

_Lonesome stranger_

_With a crowd around you_

_I see who you are_

Alexis looked back into the room where the rest of the group was still coming up with a plan.

_You joke, they laugh_

_Till the show is over_

_Then you fall so hard_

Alexis sighed. "I feel like I'm betraying them just by being here."

Dawn took her hand as a comfort. "No. I've learned that lesson the hard way: that is the never the case."

Alexis looked at her for a second and then walked off.

_If you're needing_

_A soul-to-soul connection_

_I'll run to your side_

Dawn stared after her. "Looks like we got some work to do." She got up from her seat and followed Alexis out.

_When you're lost in the dark_

_When you're out in the cold_

_When you're looking for_

_Something that resembles your soul_

Dawn cornered Alexis at the elevator out. "You know, this is something you can't walk away from."

Alexis looked at her. "I know. But you have no idea how much I want to."

_When the wind blows your house of cards_

_I'll be a home_

_To your homeless heart_

Dawn nodded. "I think I do. Key, remember? I'm supposed to be some magic device to open the gates of hell and destroyed the light. And I think Angel and Spike know what it's like to become a Vampire, even if they did lose their souls throughout their transformations."

_Open, close me_

_Leave your secrets with me_

_I can ease your pain_

Alexis shook her head at Dawn. "That's why I can't let this happen. Once Drusilla has me, she's gonna make sure my soul's out of the way. And I'm not gonna let myself make the same mistakes her family made."

_And my arms will be_

_Just like walls around you_

_Come in from the rain_

Dawn got where the conversation was going. Alexis thought her demon might turn out even worse than Angelus. And there was a good chance of that, knowing how Drusilla's undead line worked out (you know, first Darla, then Angelus, then Drusilla herself, then Spike—all 4 of which, any _alone_, let alone together, made up the Fang Gang, the worst Vampires of all time).

_If you're running_

_In the wrong direction_

_I will lead you back!_

"We won't let that happen. We've got a spell to bring your soul back anyway and then there's nothing Dru can do to break it. Except, of course, for a moment of true happiness."

Alexis looked at Dawn. "Does it count if you're in love?"

Dawn looked at her in return, knowing that the mention of it might mean she was in love. "Oh…"

_When you're lost in the dark_

_When you're out in the cold_

_When you're looking for_

_Something that resembles your soul_

Alexis nodded. "I've been with him for a while now and…I've never had this feeling before."

Dawn half-smiled.

"So if I lose my soul and you guys get it back, that love's still gonna be around?"

_When the wind blows your house of cards_

_I'll be a home_

_To your homeless heart_

Dawn sighed. "I'm not quite sure what to say here. I've never really been in love."

Alexis considered. "So there's really no way I can be with him now."

"Yes, you can. At the very least, for now."

_Broken_

_Shattered like a mirror in a million_

_Pieces_

Alexis sighed. "Might as well enjoy it while it lasts, right?"

"Don't say that. We're gonna find a way—"

"If Drusilla gets me…I think you and I both know what we're gonna have to do."

_Sooner or later_

_You've got to find_

_Something_

_Someone_

_To find you and save you_

Dawn stared at her in shock. This girl was still technically a fledgling, she had never known the taste of human blood yet, she had barely laid her hands on a human life since the night Drusilla changed her, and she was already talking about staking herself and ever telling Dawn to do the job for her if her soul went down the drain. "I'm not gonna let that happen."

_When you're lost in the dark_

_When you're out in the cold_

_When you're looking for_

_Something that resembles your soul_

Alexis shook her head at Dawn. "Why are you being so nice to me? You barely know me."

Dawn sighed. "Guess we just have some things in common." With that, she walked off to rejoin the group.

_When the wind blows your house of cards_

_I'll be a home_

_To your homeless heart_

Alexis stared after her. Dawn had a point. Maybe this was the start of a friendship. And the least she could do was follow through. So with that thought in her head, she followed Dawn back to their group to continue discussing their infiltration plan.

_(When you're lost in the dark)_

_(When you're out in the cold)_

_When you're looking for_

_Something that resembles your soul_

While the planning kept going, Alexis' thoughts stayed on her own situation. She had all these new changes to cope with. There was a good chance she could never be with the one she loved should Drusilla actually get her hands on her. And if she ended up going through what Angel had been forced through after being with Buffy, she might actually have to do something Angel hadn't had to face: leaving her family.

_When the wind blows your house of cards_

_I'll be a home_

_To your homeless heart_

Alexis couldn't keep her mind off of it: if her demon was anywhere near as bad as anyone in the Fang Gang, she might have to leave her whole life behind. Just because of Drusilla. At that point, she resolved the whole situation with one idea: she would have to kill Drusilla before that could happen. And to do that, they'd first have to eliminate this Snake guy.

_I'll be a home to your homeless heart _

And to do that…they'd need a plan…


	8. VII: Coping

Chapter 7: Coping

Angel, Buffy, Spike, Willow, and Gunn loaded into a hotel room.

"OK, so 'daughter of murder' = Alexis' dad being a mystery writer," Buffy recapped.

"And 'dead from not dying' has been explained," said Angel.

"So what about that 'mother of thieves' thing?" asked Gunn, "How does Drusilla fit that bill?"

Before anyone could answer, there was a knock on the door.

Willow opened the door and let Alexis walk in before closing it. "Alexis, what are you doing here?"

"Buffy forgot her jacket," Alexis answered, holding up the mentioned jacket.

"Oh." Buffy took it. "Thanks."

Alexis walked over to the window. "So this is your place?"

"For a little while, apparently."

Alexis looked out the window at the street below. "Nice view."

It was at that moment that Gunn turned on the TV to the news. "Hey, guys."

Everyone turned their attention to the screen.

_"…several things were reported stolen from the museum. By the time the police arrived at the scene, the criminal had already escaped and the guard was found dead with two unidentified marks on his neck. However, a few witnesses reported having caught a glimpse of this man fleeing the scene…"_

A sketch appeared of…

"That's Snake," said Willow.

"The guy Dru sired," Spike reasoned, "'Mother of thieves.'"

Alexis heard this. But the rest of the conversation began to fade from her hearing. Suddenly, she was hearing the voices distantly and indistinctly. What she was hearing was Buffy, Willow, and Gunn's heartbeats. It was tormenting her. That blood rushing around freely inside them… She was suddenly breathing heavier.

Angel heard this and turned to look at her. "Alexis?"

"No…no…make it stop…" She was pinning herself to the wall, covering her ears and closing her eyes.

"What's wrong with her?" Willow asked.

"I think I know," Angel said. He raced to the fridge that was in the room and pulled out a packet of pigs' blood, rushing to make Alexis drink it.

Alexis quickly drank some and practically drowned herself in it.

"Calm down…" Angel tried to make her cool it.

Alexis finally had the packet drained and she dropped it to the floor, looking down and still breathing heavily. She finally regained her breath enough to look at Angel. "What's wrong with me?"

"You can't contain yourself. A beating heart isn't prepared for the effects of vampirism, it'll drain your blood flow. You have to keep feeding, you just can't feed on any humans."

Alexis nodded, understanding. "OK. I…I better get out of here." She got up from the floor and started to leave. Just before leaving, she stopped, went to the fridge, and stuffed a few packs of pigs' blood in her bag. "I better…" Once she was sure she had enough, she left.

Buffy sighed.

Angel walked over to her. "She's strong, she's a smart girl. She can contain herself."

"I know, I'm just worried about the last part of the prophecy: 'The time will not come when she is revealed until a heart is felt breaking beneath her.'"

Alexis was halfway down the hall at this time. But she stopped. She'd heard that. There was only one definition for that sentence that she could determine: she was gonna kill someone. Unable to keep her cool after the events of the last few minutes, she raced away. Once she left the building, she took out her iPod and turned to some music. "Yeah, 'in a moment anything can change.'" She, frustrated, put on "Metamorphosis" by Hilary Duff. It certainly fit her situation.

_Meanwhile…_

Drusilla was off being crazy.

Snake was in the middle of the sewers, holding up a jewel he'd taken from that museum. "So this is the incredible Jewel of Chaos." He shrugged. "Mine now." He clutched it and squeezed it until it broke, magic energy from the shards of its remains flowing into him. "And now the real fun begins."

_In the middle of the night…_

Alexis lay asleep in her bed. Whenever she tossed and turned, she shifted back and forth from her human form to her Vampire form. All the while, she was having the same nightmare…

_Drusilla bit her…_

_Her heart stopped beating…_

_She reverted to her Vampire form…_

_Snake shot her…_

_Drusilla took her…_

_Snake bit Beckett…_

_Snake shot Castle…_

_Drusilla dropped Buffy's dead body and grabbed Dawn by the throat…_

Alexis couldn't take it anymore. Somehow, she just couldn't wake up. Finally, she jolted awake when her foot kicked her bedside table and knocked off her lamp.

Castle heard the clatter from downstairs and came running. "Alexis!" He raced into her room to find her in her bed, leaning over her pillow and crying over it. Castle walked over to his daughter. "Hey. Are you OK? I heard a crash—" He looked down at the shattered remains of her lamp. "Oh."

Alexis finally stopped crying and looked at him. "I can't take it anymore. I can't do this. As long as I'm alive like this, I'm just putting everyone in danger. You, Beckett, Buffy, Angel—everyone…even Ashley." She shook her head. "I keep having nightmares that Snake and Drusilla kill you all. I can't live with that, I can't live like this anymore." Without thinking, she reached into her bedside table drawer and for a stake lying there—

Castle grabbed her wrist before she could do anything hasty. "If you do that, I will be forced to do the same. I couldn't bear it if I lost you."

Alexis looked at her father tearfully and took her hand back. "You have no idea what I'm going through."

"And I guess I could never hope to. But it's something you're just gonna have to deal with."

Alexis just shook her head and lay down in her bed. "Maybe I should just sleep on it."

Castle pulled the covers up. "Right."

"And Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Feety pajamas?"

Castle looked at his clothes and ran off.

Alexis smiled after him. He was definitely not normal.

_Meanwhile again…_

Snake snuck up to an old apartment. He looked at the door, then at his hand. The back of his right hand now had a symbol shaped like a snake. He clenched his fist, knowing that he now had a plan fit for giving Drusilla exactly what she wanted: her family, the Fang Gang, with Alexis in the place of Darla. To put his plan into action, he first needed a few more Vamps to back him up, seeing as his first "army" had sort of been taken out by Alexis a few nights ago. He held up his clenched fist and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Snake smiled. "Gladly." He seized the invitation, opened the door, walked in, and closed and locked the door behind him.

20 seconds later, his victims' death screams resonated through the building.


	9. VIII: Action

Chapter 8: Action

The team loaded into the trashed apartment the next night.

Lainie was already looking over the bodies. "There you guys are. What took you so long?"

"Traffic," Beckett said, "What do we got?"

"Five young women with holes in their necks." She bent one of the heads to reveal the two puncture wounds in the girl's neck. "I'd say someone broke in around 2:00 a.m."

"They couldn't have broken in," Angel said, "A Vampire can't walk into a place of a living human's residence without an express invitation from someone who lives there."

"Then I guess they didn't realize who they were letting in," said Ryan, looking over the body. He looked around. It was just them. "Is CSU not here yet?"

"I saw the bodies and told them not to bother. It's not like we're gonna find anything to argue with our theory. I mean, who'd be dumb enough to kill all five of these girls in the exact same way and think we were going to think that it was Vampires unless the killer actually was a Vampire?"

"Point taken."

Spike then noticed something wrong. "Uh, guys?"

"What?" Willow asked.

"Why do I smell dead blood on them?"

"Probably because they bled out and they're dead," Beckett said obviously.

"Not theirs."

Buffy realized what that meant. "This wasn't a feeding. It was a recruiting."

Simply to confirm her theory, one of the fledglings rose at that minute and grabbed Dawn's leg.

Buffy quickly whipped out a stake and took her down.

Dust.

Ryan watched this. "Yeah, still nowhere near getting that."

"What do we do about the others?" asked Castle.

"I would suggest cutting their heads off before they wake up, too," Buffy suggested, holding up a knife in the hand not holding the stake.

"Uh, Buff?" Xander jumped in.

She followed his gaze. The others had already jumped out the window.

"OH, COME ON!"

_Meanwhile…_

Snake walked up to Drusilla in their sewer lair. "So what're you up to over here?"

"I watch the little duckies paddle along. But they won't stop quacking. It's rather acerbating."

Snake blinked. "OK…" He cautiously but indiscreetly pushed himself a little away from her. "While you were down here all night watching imaginary mallards, I was all over town last night, getting us new recruits and making use of my new powers. They should be here any minute to help us get even more. And once we got enough, we can set up the Slayer and her buddies for their doom and trap our little prophecy-come-true down here with us."

"Will we rip their still-beating hearts out?"

"If you want."

"Take me with you on the hunt tonight? I'm rather hungry."

"I thought you'd say that. Don't worry, I'm sure there's plenty of juicy young morsels left out there."

"Aw, do you say that about all your 'morsels'?"

Snake smirked and turned to the source of the new voice.

There stood four of the young women he'd turned the night before. Storm Sentry, hair so blonde it was silvery-white, brown eyes, and a fiery personality. Snow Sentry, AKA "Snowflake," Storm's twin sister, hair even blonder than her sister's (snow white, hence the name), bright blue eyes, and a softer-but-still-fired-up personality. Luna Connors, golden honey-wheat hair, silver eyes, and a striking electric-personality night person. And, at the head of the group, the one who'd spoken, Luna's older sister, Lela Connors, hair dark enough for all of them, eyes green as poison ivy, and an attitude of "get-off-my-back-before-I-bite-your-arm-off."

Snake considered them for a moment. "Nice to see some of my hard work paid off. Key word: 'some.' I could've sworn I turned five girls last night."

Lela groaned, examining her nails. "Yeah, Piper couldn't make it. She was too busy getting staked."

Snake growled. "The Slayer." He shook his head. "We're gonna have to take that girl out fast, before the entirety of her kind comes after us." He then smiled. "We'll just have to hope that the Chaos comes first."

"I think we all do."

Snake turned again to find five more coming in, these all male and all the source of a gang fight the night before in exactly the wrong corner of town.

Thunder Simmons, dark blonde hair, darker sea blue eyes, and the kind of guy who'd say anything to get what he wanted (and who enjoyed beating people up). Cutter Silver, dark eyes, brown hair, someone you wouldn't wanna run into in a dark alley. Ghost Tramper, near albino white hair, brown eyes, and a temper not to be messed with. Shorty—also Squirt, but the nickname had nothing to do with his height (nobody really knew where it came from)—Delgado, light hair and bright eyes, but quite the biter. And the leader of these, the new speaker, Volcano Jordan, fiery red hair and eyes and an equally fiery personality.

Snake smirked again. "Glad to see a few of you got past the Slay-runts."

Volcano shrugged. "Wrong side of town." He caught sight of Lela and instantly went over to her. "And who's this?"

"Out of your league," was her answer.

Volcano smirked. "Spicy. My kind of girl. Name's Volcano."

Lela glared at him. "What kind of gang did you guys jump out of?"

"Don't ask."

Lela just scoffed and turned away. She then caught sight of the purple crystal shards on the ground. "Wait. What's this?" She held out her hand…and the shards flew by themselves for her. "And how am I doing that?"

"It's power flows through you now," Snake said, "It's yours to…telekinesis-ate."

Lela looked at him. "Call me crazy, but I don't think that's the proper word." She then considered the chain hanging around her neck with nothing on it. She smiled, took the chain off, and began stringing the shards into it. "But I do think it works as a charm necklace."

"Man, girls are crazy," Volcano groaned, leaning against the wall.

That instantly got him a glare or two from Lela. "Hey!"

"What? I've never met a sane one!"

Snake shook his head and walked back over to Drusilla, letting the new recruits work their problems out alone. "So…you ready for that hunt I promised you?"

Drusilla smiled at him, evilly. "Always."

With that, Snake helped her up from the floor and began to lead them off.

As they walked off, Volcano looked at Lela. "Are you sure?"

"I'm not interested!"

"Come on, I don't bite! …yet!"

"Then you have problems!"

"Well, who made you queen of the Underworld?"

Snake groaned, burying his head in his hands. "This is gonna be a long night."


	10. IX: Madness

Chapter 9: Madness

Buffy was now pacing at the precinct, looking over their murder board.

Beckett walked up. "Do you mind? That's kind of my thing."

Buffy stopped herself. "Sorry. I'm just nervous. I mean, come on! There was a dozen of us there and we just let four Vampires get away! And we're no closer to figuring out where Drusilla and Snake are or what they're up to or what's going on or how to fix it—"

"Talk to Castle, he's probably got some crazy, wild, insane fantasy theory for you."

Buffy smirked. "So, uh…are you guys…a thing?"

She looked at her. "What? Me and Castle? No, we're just partners, nothing more."

"Come on, I've seen you two. There's something going on there."

"Yeah, if you consider me thinking he's annoying and him being annoying a 'something.'"

"Guys!" Ryan rushed into the room to meet up with the gang. "Something's going on at a building on 13th. Wouldn't you believe it, 13 people went in during the past hour and never came out."

"Sounds like a Drusilla stunt if I ever heard one," Gunn said.

"That's a problem then," Beckett said, "That street is right near the park holding a free concert with a local band tonight. That place is gonna be packed for a feeding session the minute the sun goes down."

"Then we've got some work to do," Angel said, "Let's go!" He led them all off.

Beckett quickly pulled out her phone and dialed. "This is Beckett. Do anything you can to keep people away from 13th Street tonight, we have reason to believe a band of murderers are hiding there. Advise to not engage, leave it to us." She quickly rushed off after the others.

_An hour later…_

The band was by now setting up to perform.

Snowflake looked out the window at the park, careful not to touch sunlight. She sighed and looked at the others. "How much longer?"

Luna looked to the skies, finding the sun falling from the horizon. She smirked viciously, twirling her hair with a finger. "Soon."

It was about then that the gang drove up in their cars.

Beckett quickly started to pull out her badge and storm to the stage.

Angel quickly stopped her. "You tell everyone the same details you gave your fellow cops, there's gonna be a panic. That's the one thing Drusilla can play off of most."

"Don't worry, I got it." She started off again…until she noticed something missing. "Uh…where's my gun?"

_BANG!_

"Found it," Dawn commented.

That did it. Everyone was running and panicking.

Thunder saw this from the dark building and smirked. "Showtime." He started off, then ducked back. "Oh! And nice shot, Lela."

Lela smirked, holding up the telekinetically swiped gun in midair. "Thank you." She then flipped her hair and led them off, the gun crumpling into a wad of metal and dropping to the floor behind them.

Outside, the gang was now bobbing and weaving through the endless crowd to keep them calm. Not gonna happen any time soon.

And then it was cinched. The sun had set completely. Angel and Spike could finally exit the shadows…and so could the problem.

Before they knew what had happened, doors and windows burst, streetlights exploded, car alarms went off, and the dispersing crowd practically collapsed to the ground.

The gang even faltered, feeling pressures cascading till they could barely stand without supports.

"What's going on?" Castle asked, panicking.

"I don't know," Willow groaned, pinning herself to a tree, "I'm sensing magic but I can't tell what it is. Something's going on."

Suspicions confirmed when the group of Vamps emerged and began their feeding sessions.

Shorty looked at Cutter. "Should I keep them down or let them run?"

Cutter smirked at the weighted down crowd. "It's no fun when they can't run and scream."

Shorty smirked back. He started to release them when he caught sight of a group of people that had not collapsed completely and were still able to move and speak. "I think we've caught our slayers." He released his hold on the park and started to storm over there with the rest of the gang, feeding on several panicking bystanders as they went.

The gang saw them coming and how fast they plowed through the crowd, taking their victims every few seconds.

"And again I ask," Castle said, "WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

The question was [somewhat] answered when they were thrown aside by what seemed to be an earthquake.

Buffy was knocked into the grass. She instantly tried to get up only to find ice spreading down her and freezing her in place.

Snowflake smiled evilly as she approached her frozen victim. "I always heard…" She stroked her, knowing she couldn't move. "…revenge is a dish best served cold." She bared her fangs—

Angel rushed her, knocking her over and pounding her face in with one kick to the jaw.

Volcano then appeared behind him. "You really wanna go there?" He tossed out a blast of a furious firestorm, forcing them all to the ground so as not to catch fire or anything.

Lela looked at the group lying flat on the ground. "Nice shot." She smirked at Volcano and leaned against him. "Maybe you are my kind of guy." As soon as she said it, she began to kiss him. Ew.

Dawn slowly got up. "What's going on? Since when are fledgling Vamps stronger and faster than Angel and Spike?"

"Oh…" Everyone instantly turned to Storm as she walked up. "…since about the same time that we can do this." She held up her hand, revealing it to be forming an energy blast of pure lightning.

Ryan looked at the others. "Is that normal?"

Alexis: Well, uh…

Willow: …we…

Buffy: …can't…

Angel: …do…

Spike: …that.

As soon as that was over, Storm sent them flying into the park trees.

"Alright, now I'm with Castle: what's going on?!" Beckett demanded.

"I'll tell you what's going on!" Xander said, "Snake made some kind of breed of super-Vamp!"

"Xander, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"And yet it seems to be true so far!" Andrew added.

"OK, even for the paranormal, that's not normal!" Gunn pointed out.

"Oh, I know!" Everyone turned to find Lela leaning against a nearby tree. "If every Vamp out there were like us—why, it'd just be CHAOS!" She said that last part going into Vamp form.

Illyria instantly looked her over and saw something amiss: Lela had already had marks like snakes coiling around her forearms and hissing on her palms—all of them had since they rose…just not before that. Now that she was in her full Vamp form, she had similar marks burning into her neck, waist, and legs. They couldn't possibly be some form of birthmark and they were too much part of her skin to be tattoos or anything of the sort…so that only left one other option: magic marks. Such a theory was proven when she saw that the marks were also in Lela's eyes: unlike the regular golden design of most Vampires' true faces' eyes, hers were dark black and blood red with golden snake-like slits as pupils. All of this and that last hint…and the shards hanging around her neck…

Illyria was stunned. "No…" She growled and stormed over to Lela, kicking her so far back that she fell against a car. "You are a fool! You do not know the power you dare attempt to wield! No one can contain it once it has been released!"

Lela just laughed from the hood of the car as she straightened herself into a sitting position. "Oh, it's not mine to wield and contain. It's mine to spread around." As soon as she said it, she grabbed a running passerby and bit him out, slicing her arm open and forcing it down before pushing his dead body to the ground. Everyone was shocked at this. She'd done it so fast that they didn't even realize it'd happened until the poor man was already lying there dead. "Disorder is a disease now. And if you think you can find a cure for it…" She pressed her foot against the dead body's neck. "…feel free to die slowly and painfully from it." She dug her foot in, snapping the dead body's neck.

The gang was now wondering why she'd bothered to turn him in the first place if she was just going to tear the body apart. But that all changed when they saw the fledgling rising already. Instead of dismantling him, the sudden shock had awakened him immediately.

"Illyria…" Angel asked cautiously, "…care to explain what's going on?"

Illyria took a second to process the events of the night and finally came to a conclusion. "You said that Snake stole a jewel from a museum?"

"Yes?"

"I believe it was the Jewel of Chaos, created by the beasts of disorder millennia ago to one day give a creature of darkness the power to destroy minds, tear apart lives…and ruin our realm."

"Trouble is, one person can't contain that power for so long," Lela explained from there. She looked over at the fledgling as he rose, smirking with mischievous delight as the snake marks formed on him as well. "So he decided we all could use some of it."

"He created a new kind of Vampire…" Buffy took a moment to process this, cautiously backing away. She had plenty of experience in this area, but this particular case…that was an event she could boast about _not _seeing before.

Lela smiled at her. "No kidding. This is a new age of darkness to the supernatural world. The age in which rose the Viper Vampires. And the Circle of the Serpent's Eye ruled them all."

Now everyone was backing away from the threat. "Serpent's Eye" could only mean one thing: Snake and Drusilla. Soon to include the Fang Gang (minus Darla but plus Alexis).

"Uh, Buff?" Xander asked, "You got a plan?"

"Yeah," Buffy answered. 3…2…1… "Run."

With no arguments, everyone went through with this plan as fast as they could.


End file.
